the sublime was the taste for the fantastic, the occult, and the
macabre—for the adventures of the soul voyaging into the danger-
ous reaches of consciousness.HENRY FUSELI The concept of the nightmare is the subject of a
1781 painting (FIG. 30-9) by Henry Fuseli(1741–1825). Swiss by
birth, Fuseli settled in England and eventually became a member of the
Royal Academy and an instructor there. Largely self-taught, he con-
trived a distinctive manner to express the fantasies of his vivid imagi-
nation. Fuseli specialized in night moods of horror and in dark fan-
tasies—in the demonic, in the macabre, and often in the sadistic. In The
Nightmare,a beautiful young woman lies asleep, draped across the bed
with her limp arm dangling over the side. An incubus,a demon be-
lieved in medieval times to prey, often sexually, on sleeping women,
squats ominously on her body. In the background, a ghostly horse with
flaming eyes bursts into the scene from beyond the curtain. Despite the
temptation to see the painting’s title as a pun because of this horse, the
word “nightmare” actually derives from “night” and “Mara.” Mara was
a spirit in Northern European mythology that people thought tor-
mented and suffocated sleepers. Fuseli was among the first to attemptto depict the dark terrain of the human sub-
conscious that became fertile ground for later
artists to sow.
WILLIAM BLAKE In their images of the
sublime and the terrible, Romantic artists of-
ten combined Baroque dynamism with natu-
ralistic details in their quest for grippingly
moving visions. These preferences became the
mainstay of Romantic art and contrasted with
the more intellectual, rational Neoclassical
themes and presentations. The two were not
mutually exclusive, however. Gros, Girodet-
Trioson, and Ingres effectively integrated ele-
ments of Neoclassicism with Romanticism. So
too did the visionary English poet, painter, and
engraver William Blake(1757–1827). Blake
greatly admired ancient Greek art because it
exemplified for him the mathematical and thus
the eternal, and his work often incorporated
classical references. Yet Blake did not align him-
self with prominent Enlightenment figures.
Like many other Romantic artists, he also
found the art of the Middle Ages appealing.
Blake derived the inspiration for many of his
paintings and poems from his dreams. The im-
portance he attached to these nocturnal experi-
ences led him to believe that the rationalist search for material expla-
nations of the world stifled the spiritual side of human nature. He also
believed that the stringent rules of behavior imposed by orthodox re-
ligions killed the individual’s creative impulse.
Blake’s vision of the Almighty in Ancient of Days (FIG. 30-10)
combines his ideas and interests in a highly individual way. For Blake,
this figure united the concept of the Creator with that of wisdom as a
part of God. He chose Ancient of Daysas the frontispiece for his book
Europe: A Prophecy,and juxtaposed it with a quotation (“When he set
a compass upon the face of the deep”) from Proverbs 8:27 in the Old
Testament. The speaker in that Bible chapter is Wisdom, who tells the
reader how she was with the Lord through all the time of the Creation
(Prov. 8:22–23, 27–30). Energy fills Blake’s composition. The Almighty
leans forward from a fiery orb, peering toward earth and unleashing
power through his outstretched left arm into twin rays of light. These
emerge between his spread fingers as might an architect’s measuring
instrument. A strong wind surges through his thick hair and beard.
Only the strength of his Michelangelesque physique keeps him firmly
planted on his heavenly perch. Here, ideal classical anatomy merges
with the inner dark dreams of Romanticism.30-10William Blake,Ancient of Days,frontis-
piece ofEurope: A Prophecy,1794. Metal relief
etching, hand colored, 9 21 – 63 – 4 .Pierpont
Morgan Library, New York.
Although art historians classify Blake as a
Romantic artist, he incorporated classical
references in his works. Here, ideal classical
anatomy merges with the inner dark dreams
of Romanticism.Romanticism 7851 in.